Thursday, March 3, 2016

While January brought the flu, February ended with a more unpleasant health problem—well, more painful—which kept me up an entire night last week Tuesday (not a wink of sleep!) crying in uncomfortable pain, wanting nothing more than to be able to sleep. I ended up sleeping the entire next day (which is luckily doable with my job), was up for a few hours in the evening, and then slept all Wednesday night—until like 9 or 10 the following morning!

No night or day since has been as bad as that Tuesday, though there have been traces (like last night, for example). Sitting is not a good position for this particular ailment, so I've spent the week working in bed, lying on my side, playing around with various positions using pillows.

Anyway, so I haven't worked on calligraphy in the past week (would need to sit), and I totally stopped tracking (or trying to complete) my monthly chart during this time.

In fact, I'm just now setting up March's chart, as today has been very good/tolerable compared to yesterday. I'm crossing my fingers that the end is near!

So with that lovely intro, here's what progress I made in February.

February Progress

1. Volunteer

(+) Spend 30 minutes researching volunteer opportunities in Rodez. - Have contact info for two high schools in town where I'd like to volunteer.

( ) Select one Rodez volunteer opportunity to pursue (and take next step). - I actively decided not to finish this one, since we're still not sure if Damien will be offered a longer position or not when his job ends at the end of next week.

I will add that the English conversation tables I hosted this month, which I'll get to below, have felt a bit like I'm volunteering—helping others practice English. So until Damien's job situation is known, I'm happy with English convo table being my "volunteer" outlet.

2. Learn Calligraphy

( / ) Finish the Gothic alphabet (pg. 15-22) in my "Calligraphy Made Easy" book (ideally, one letter per day). - I'm so close! I only have "y" and "z" left.

So Lindsey has ordered two white inks and the tools seen above, which will be shipped to me here in France! Great motivation to keep working towards this goal. (Have I said I can't believe that I won?)

3. Live Out My Values

(+) Read quote book every morning and track on February chart. - I read my quotes book 9 days of the month. Longest streak: 6 days.

( ) Helpful - Spend at least one hour each week working on that ol' Korean Food Guide. - You guys, I kid you not: So I tried to start working on this, then realized my most recent version of the guide is on my old computer (in Wisconsin) in Scrivener. My parents are trying to help me recover it...

Took a pottery class and a 2-day painting class at a local art studio (Creative, Curious)

Practiced driving stick for an hour (Challenge)

Bought a tea strainer and two types of tea leaves at a tea shop in town, after asking the lady working a bunch of questions about making the switch from tea bags! (Confident, Curious)

I actually have a page in my notebook now titled "Curiosities," where I jot down random things I wonder or things I want to know more about. I then go back later during "down time" and spend a small chunk of time looking into one. (Curious)

(+) French: Finished four chapters in my grammar book, finished my research and notes on tout/tous, practiced on FluentU 6 or 7 days (that I wrote down...), watched two French movies and many episodes of "Fais pas ci fais pas ça" and "Un village français"

(+) Have a few herbs and plants in the apartment. - I bought two plants two weekends ago for the apartment! One is larger, and the other is quite tiny. It's great to have something alive and green to look at.

March Focus

Here are some smaller tasks to complete this month, to get me closer to my three main resolutions:

1. Volunteer

Continue hosting weekly English conversation table, as if it were a volunteering commitment.

If news is received that we'll be staying longer in Rodez, contact a local middle or high school to offer myself as a volunteer.

2. Learn Calligraphy

Buy a dip pen and black ink.

Print Kaitlin Style Course outline and any other additional worksheets from the video course

Complete faux calligraphy pages in Kaitlin worksheet set (pg. 5 - 13)

Watch "About Straight Pens" video in Kaitlin course

Finish Gothic alphabet and 4 more pages in "Calligraphy Made Easy" book